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元 Yuan · 散曲 Sanqu song

折桂令·西陵怀古

Plucking the Cassia Branch - Meditating on the Past at Xiling

张可久

Zhang Kejiu

怀古nostalgia 送别Farewell 离愁sorrow

画船儿载不起离愁，人到西陵，恨满东州。
懒上归鞍，慵开泪眼，怕倚层楼。
春去春来，管送别依依岸柳。
潮生潮落，会忘机泛泛沙鸥。
烟水悠悠，有句相酬，无计相留。

The painted boat cannot bear the parting sorrow;
The man reaches Xiling, and regret fills all Dongzhou.
Lazy to mount the homeward saddle,
Loth to open the tear-filled eyes,
Afraid to lean on the high tower.
Spring goes, spring comes - the clinging riverside willows see off the parting;
Tide rises, tide falls - the drifting sand-gulls have forgot their craft.
Mist and water stretch on and on;
There are lines to answer the feeling,
But no way to keep the friend.

Listen

Meaning

The painted boat seems unable to bear the parting sorrow; the man has reached Xiling, and parting-regret fills all Dongzhou. Lazy to mount the homeward saddle, loth to open the tear-filled eyes, afraid to lean alone on the high tower. Spring goes and spring comes, and only the clinging riverside willows see off the parting year by year; tide rises and tide falls, and the sand-gulls on the river have forgot their craft. Mist and water stretch on and on; there are lines to answer the deep feeling, yet no way in the end to keep the man.

画船儿仿佛载不动那离别的愁绪，人已到了西陵，离恨却弥漫了整个东州。懒得跨上归鞍，慵懒地不愿睁开含泪的双眼，更怕独自倚靠高楼远望。春去春来，只有岸边依依的杨柳年年为我送别；潮涨潮落，江上沙鸥自在忘机。烟水苍茫悠悠，虽有诗句可以酬答深情，却终究没有办法把人留下。

Appreciation

This song is wonderful in its strange fancy of 'the boat cannot bear the parting sorrow' - turning Li Qingzhao's 'the boat cannot carry so much sorrow' inside out, changing the wandering skiff to a painted boat and the pleasure-trip to a parting, so the sorrow seems all the heavier. Next, 'Lazy to mount the homeward saddle, loth to open the tear-filled eyes, afraid to lean on the high tower' runs three lines with 'lazy', 'loth', 'afraid' stepping the post-parting weariness of body and heart, fine as lyric. 'Spring goes, spring comes' and 'Tide rises, tide falls' are set in cross-antithesis, using nature's cycle to set off the uncertainty of human affairs; it closes with 'There are lines to answer the feeling, but no way to keep the friend', ending feeling in scene, lingering and unending. The whole song is clear, fair and winding, feeling and scene fused.

【白话串讲】 “画船儿载不起离愁”——张可久写：画船也载不起离愁。“人到西陵，恨满东州”。“春去春来，管送别依依岸柳。潮生潮落，会忘机泛泛沙鸥”——只有沙鸥，能忘掉机心。【意象与手法】此曲妙在「画船儿载不起离愁」的奇想——化用李清照《武陵春》「载不动许多愁」，易游舟为画船、易游赏为送别，愁愈显其重；「懒上归鞍，慵开泪眼，怕倚层楼」三句连用「懒、慵、怕」递写别后身心俱疲，细腻如词；「春去春来」与「潮生潮落」隔句对仗，以自然循环反衬人事无常；结以「有句相酬，无计相留」，以景结情，袅袅不尽。全曲清丽婉转，情景浑融，是「以词为曲」的典范。【情感与主旨】张可久（约1270—1352后），字伯远，号小山，庆元（今宁波）人，元散曲清丽派代表，与乔吉并称「双璧」，存世小令八百余首，为元人之冠。一生怀才不遇，时官时隐，漫游江南。西陵渡故址在今浙江萧山，古为折柳伤离之地。此曲写西陵送别友人，将宦途漂泊之孤与挚友别离之怅融而为一，曲题虽曰怀古，实以怀古之苍茫增伤离之深重。【名句点睛】常考：一、「画船儿载不起离愁」的化用与妙处——以船不胜写愁之重；二、「懒上归鞍，慵开泪眼，怕倚层楼」的虚字连用与心理刻画；三、隔句对仗「春去春来……潮生潮落……」的章法；四、结句「有句相酬，无计相留」以景结情的手法。

Background

Zhang Kejiu (c. 1270-after 1352), courtesy Boyuan, style Xiaoshan, from Qingyuan (today's Ningbo), was the representative of the Yuan song's clear-and-fair school, paired with Qiao Ji as the 'twin jades', with 855 little songs extant, the most of any Yuan writer. All his life unrecognized, now official now retired, he roamed Jiangnan. The old Xiling ferry, near today's Xiaoshan in Zhejiang, was in antiquity a place of breaking willows in sorrow of parting. This song writes seeing a friend off at Xiling, fusing the loneliness of official wandering with the regret of parting from a close friend into one, writing deep parting feeling in a clear, spacious, fair hand - just Xiaoshan's true colour.

张可久（约1270—1348后），字伯远，号小山，庆元（今浙江宁波）人，元代散曲清丽派代表作家，与乔吉并称「曲中双璧」。他一生沉抑下僚，只做过桐庐典史、路吏等微职，怀才不遇，时官时隐，漫游于江南山水之间，存世小令八百余首，为元人之冠。西陵渡故址在今浙江萧山西兴（旧属山阴），古称固陵，相传越国范蠡于此筑城，又为钱塘江古渡，自唐代张乔「别离吟断西陵渡」之后，西陵便与折柳送别结下不解之缘。此曲即写西陵江畔送别友人：画船将发，离愁难载；归鞍懒上，泪眼慵开；春去春来、潮生潮落，唯见杨柳年年送别、沙鸥自在忘机。曲题虽曰「怀古」，实则怀古之情与伤离之感交织——西陵渡口既是古今离人共历之地，诗人于此送别，便自然把一己之离愁放入历史长河中来感受，宦途漂泊之孤与挚友离别之怅融而为一，是张可久清丽雅正风格的典型作品，亦可见元代下层文士漂泊无依的普遍心态。

Art

此曲最引人处，在开篇「画船儿载不起离愁」的奇想——化用李清照《武陵春》「只恐双溪舴艋舟，载不动许多愁」，易游赏之舟为送别之画船，愁之沉重愈显其极。次以「懒上归鞍，慵开泪眼，怕倚层楼」三句，连用「懒、慵、怕」三个虚字，递写别后身心俱疲、不忍回望之态，细腻入词，宛转如歌。中幅「春去春来，管送别依依岸柳。潮生潮落，会忘机泛泛沙鸥」为全曲骨架：两对隔句对仗，以自然的循环往复反衬人事的聚散无常——春柳年年送别，是离别之永恒；沙鸥日日忘机，是闲逸之永恒；而人在其间，却只有离愁与漂泊。「依依」「泛泛」叠词相对，音节摇曳。结以「烟水悠悠，有句相酬，无计相留」，由景入情，以景结情：烟水悠悠是眼前实景，也是愁绪的绵延；有诗可酬是无力之慰，无计相留是无力之痛，一「有」一「无」对举，袅袅不尽。全曲由奇想而细写而浩叹，章法开合有致，是元曲中情景交融的佳构。

Allusions

This song uses allusion naturally without a seam. First it transforms Li Qingzhao's 'Wuling Spring': 'I fear the twin-stream grasshopper boat cannot carry so much sorrow', reversing its sense to write that the painted boat cannot bear the parting sorrow, setting off the depth of friendship. Second, 'Xiling' uses the parting tale: the Zhejiang Xiling ferry was an ancient place of breaking willows in sorrow of parting; Zhang Qiao's 'parting is sung out at the Xiling ferry' had long bound it with parting, here used to mark the place. Third, 'forgot their craft' comes from the 'Zhuangzi', meaning to quench the scheming mind and care little for the world's affairs; the sand-gulls' forgetting of craft sets off man's inability to forget feeling - the allusion is familiar yet the meaning fresh.

此曲用典融化无痕，如盐入水。其一，化用李清照《武陵春》「只恐双溪舴艋舟，载不动许多愁」——李清照以舟载不动愁写愁之重，张可久翻用其意，以画船「载不起离愁」写送别之情的沉甸，且易「双溪游赏」为「西陵送别」，语境一转而新意顿生，是典型的「化用翻新」，前人谓其善用前人诗意而自出新境，此句即最显之例。其二，「西陵」点地望：西陵渡自唐代即为折柳伤离之地，张乔「别离吟断西陵渡」早已将此地与离别绑定，诗人取此渡口送别，正是借用其历史文化积淀来加重离情，亦使「怀古」之题有了着落。其三，「忘机」出《列子·黄帝》海上鸥鸟忘机之典，谓人无机心则鸥鸟相亲，此处以沙鸥之「忘机」反衬人之「不能忘情」——鸥鸟全无机心、自在来去，而人满怀离愁、欲留无计，典虽熟而意弥新。全曲用典皆就眼前景、心中情随手拈来，不矜才使气，正合小山「清而且丽，华而不艳」的风神。

Commentary

The Ming writer Zhu Quan's 'Orthodox Tone of the Grand Harmony' praised Zhang Kejiu's songs as 'like a jade lute in the misty sky', 'clear and yet fair, splendid and yet not gaudy'. The modern scholar Ren Na's 'Outline of Sanqu' said he 'makes song from lyric, turning the plain into the refined'; this song's language is winding and its mood deep, truly with the flavour of the lyricist. Sui Shusen noted his 'good use of former poets' meaning yet opening new realms', as 'cannot bear the parting sorrow' clearly inherits Li Qingzhao's meaning yet refreshes it. The Qing writer Liang Tingnan's 'Song Talk' called him 'implied, not laid bare; stopping where the meaning arrives'.

张可久曲名在元代即已极高。明朱权《太和正音谱》列其曲「如瑶天笙鹤」，评曰「清而且丽，华而不艳」，又谓其词清丽而不失之柔媚，此曲正可当之。近人任讷《散曲概论》称其「以词为曲，化俗为雅」，谓小山把词的含蓄典雅带入散曲，使曲摆脱俚俗而趋于文人化；此曲「懒上归鞍，慵开泪眼，怕倚层楼」等句，遣词造句纯然词家笔墨，正是「以词为曲」的明证。清梁廷枏《曲话》评其「含蓄不露，意到即止」；隋树森《全元散曲》亦推重其善用前人诗意而自出新境，如「载不起离愁」显系承李易安词意而翻新，即此曲开篇一句，已足见其点化之功。就散曲史言，张可久以小令八百余首冠绝元人，与乔吉并称双璧，其清丽雅正一路，实为元曲文人化的最高成就，此曲则是其送别题材中的代表作，与《折桂令》诸作同为后人追摹的典范，曲中「画船载愁」「烟水悠悠」之境，亦深刻影响了后世曲家写离情的笔墨。

Prosody

Form Sanqu lyric - Plucking the Cassia Branch of the double tune (little song)元散曲·双调《折桂令》（又名蟾宫曲、天香引）小令

Rhyme Rhymes of the Central Plain, you-hou rhyme (sorrow, Zhou, tower, willow, gull, keep)押《中原音韵》尤侯韵：「愁、州、楼、柳、鸥、留」一韵到底

Tone pattern Double tune; varied line lengths, many four-character lines spread out双调曲牌，句式以四字句为主，参差错落，衬字灵活

Reading note Plucking the Cassia Branch is also called Toad Palace Tune or Heavenly Fragrance Lead; filled here to the tune with neat antithesis.《折桂令》又名《蟾宫曲》《天香引》，属双调曲牌，句式以四字句为主，参差变化，为元人最常用的曲牌之一，张可久尤擅此调。此曲通押尤侯韵，韵脚「愁、州、楼、柳、鸥、留」一韵到底，韵位疏密相间，读来回环流转，正合离愁之绵长。句式上，「画船儿载不起离愁」为七字句而「儿」是衬字，正体现散曲句法自由、可加衬字的特色；其下「人到西陵，恨满东州。懒上归鞍，慵开泪眼，怕倚层楼」连用四字句铺排，整齐而急促，写离愁之堆积；中幅「春去春来，管送别依依岸柳。潮生潮落，会忘机泛泛沙鸥」隔句对仗，四字对四字、七字对七字，工稳而不板滞，「管送别」「会忘机」皆带衬字，使对仗中见流走；结三句「烟水悠悠，有句相酬，无计相留」以四字句收束，一韵三叠，余音袅袅。整曲骈散相间、长短错落，既得曲之俚俗流利，又具词之清丽雅致，正是张可久「以词为曲」在格律上的体现。

Line by line

画船儿载不起离愁

The painted boat cannot bear the parting sorrow

画船仿佛载不动离别的愁绪

The painted boat seems unable to carry away the sorrow of parting.

开篇即奇，是全曲最著的名句。愁本无形，不可称量，此处却把它写成有重量、可装载之物，而且重到连画船都「载不起」——离愁之沉，一至于此。此句显系化用李清照《武陵春》「只恐双溪舴艋舟，载不动许多愁」，而翻新出奇：李清照写的是独居念远之愁，用「舴艋舟」小舟作比；张可久写的是江干送别之愁，用「画船」大船作比，船愈大而犹载不起，愁愈显其重。且「画船儿」三字带出轻快华美的意象，与「载不起」的沉重形成反差，举重若轻，妙趣横生。一句既出，全曲离愁的基调与分量便已定下，下文「恨满东州」「无计相留」皆由此生发。

The opening is at once wondrous, the song's best-known line. Grief is formless, beyond weight, yet here written as something with weight, something to be loaded — and so heavy that even the painted boat 'cannot carry' it: the parting grief's heaviness, to such a pitch. The line clearly adapts Li Qingzhao's 'I fear the Shuangxi skiff could not carry so much sorrow,' yet turns it new: Li Qingzhao writes the solitary longing of one alone, in the small 'skiff'; Zhang Kejiu writes the riverside farewell, in the large 'painted boat' — the larger the boat, the more the grief's weight shows. And 'painted boat' carries a light, gorgeous image, set against the 'cannot carry' heaviness, weight handled lightly, the wit abundant. Once the line appears, the song's parting tone and weight are fixed; all below — 'grief filling the eastern state,' 'no way to keep you' — grows from it.

懒上归鞍，慵开泪眼，怕倚层楼

Lazy to mount the homeward saddle, loth to open the tear-filled eyes, afraid to lean on the high tower

懒得跨上归鞍，慵懒地不愿睁开含泪的双眼，更怕独自倚靠高楼远望。

Too listless to mount the homeward saddle, too languid to open my tear-wet eyes, too fearful to lean on the high tower.

三句排比，连用「懒、慵、怕」三个虚字，递写送别之后的消沉情态，是全曲最细腻入词的一段。「懒上归鞍」写别后无意归去——归鞍本是归途所乘，此刻却懒得跨上，正因归去之后更觉形单影只；「慵开泪眼」写泪眼朦胧而不忍睁开——睁眼便见人去舟远，不如闭目；「怕倚层楼」更进一层，层楼可望远，望远则更增离愁，故「怕」。三字三境，层层加深，把离别后欲归不忍、欲看不敢、欲望还怕的复杂心理写得纤毫毕现。以虚字连用写缠绵情态，本是词家手法，用于散曲而愈觉婉转，正见小山「以词为曲」的本色，亦为全曲由奇想转入细写的枢纽。

Three lines in排比, the three particles 'lazy,' 'listless,' 'afraid,' writing the depression after farewell, the song's most delicate passage. 'Lazy to mount the homeward saddle' — no will to go home: the homeward saddle is the way back, yet now too listless to mount, precisely because home would only show the loneness; 'listless to open tearful eyes' — tearful eyes one cannot bear to open, for opening shows the boat gone, better to close them; 'afraid to lean on the tall tower' one degree further: the high tower sees far, and seeing far only doubles the parting grief, hence 'afraid.' Three words, three states, layer on layer, writing the complex heart — homeward yet unable, seeing yet not daring, gazing yet fearing — to the finest thread. Writing clinging moods through chained particles is the ci-poet's art, here in sanqu the more graceful, showing Zhang Kejiu's native turn of 'making ci into qu,' and the hinge from fantasy to fine detail.

春去春来，管送别依依岸柳

Spring goes, spring comes, tending only the willows that see me off, year after year.

春去春来，只有岸边依依的杨柳年年为我送别。

Spring departs, spring returns; still the shore willows, soft and clinging, are left to speed the parting on.

写自然之循环与离别之永恒，是化用《诗经·小雅·采薇》「昔我往矣，杨柳依依」的名句而自铸新境。「春去春来」以季节的循环往复写时间的无尽，而在这无尽的时间里，年年不变的唯有渡口杨柳的依依送别——柳色如故，而送别的人换了一茬又一茬，送别的愁也积了一重又一重。「管」字用得活，有「任凭」「只管」之意，写出杨柳不识愁苦、只管年年飘拂的天真，恰反衬出人间离别的无奈。「依依」叠词，既写柳丝摇曳之态，更写情意缠绵之状，物与人同此依依。此句将《诗经》语典化入曲中，不见斧凿痕，而离情愈见深长，是小山融化经典、推陈出新的典范。

This line writes nature's cycle and parting's eternity, adapting the Book of Songs' 'long ago I went forth, willows soft and clinging,' yet casting a new realm. 'Spring goes, spring comes' writes time's endlessness in the seasons' round; and in that endless time, what changes not year by year is only the ferry-willows' soft farewell — the willow hue as of old, yet the parted men changed crop after crop, the parting grief piled layer on layer. The word 'tend' is used living, meaning 'let be,' 'do nothing but,' writing the willows' innocence of grief, only drifting year after year, setting off the helplessness of human parting. 'Soft and clinging' the doubled word, at once the swaying willow threads and the clinging affection, thing and human in the same clinging. The line fuses the Book of Songs into the qu without a chisel mark, the parting grief the longer — Zhang Kejiu's model of melting the classics, renewing the old.

有句相酬，无计相留

There are lines to answer the feeling, but no way to keep the friend

虽有诗句可以酬答深情，却终究没有办法把人留下。

I have verses to requite your deep feeling, yet no means to hold you back.

结句以对举收束，一「有」一「无」，写尽无力回天的怅惘。「有句相酬」是说：面对此番别离，我有千言万语、有诗可以酬答你的深情——这是文人能做的唯一的事；「无计相留」是说：然而诗再长、情再深，也终究留不住你即将远去的舟船——这是任何人无力改变的事。「相酬」与「相留」对举，一虚一实：诗句是虚的慰藉，挽留是实的愿望，而虚的酬答终究替代不了实的挽留。两句之前冠以「烟水悠悠」的景语，以苍茫烟水衬此无奈，景情交融，余韵袅袅。全曲至此戛然而止，不言愁而愁自深，不言恨而恨自满，正是「含蓄不露，意到即止」的曲家高境。

The closing gathers in contrast, one 'have,' one 'no,' writing to the full the helpless regret. 'I have verses to repay your love' means: before this parting, I have a thousand words, verses to repay your deep feeling — the only thing the man of letters can do; 'yet no way to keep you' means: however long the verses, however deep the feeling, still I cannot hold the boat that is leaving — what no one can change. 'Repay' and 'keep' set against each other, one void one solid: the verse is void consolation, the keeping a solid wish, and the void requital can never replace the solid retention. Before the two lines lies the scenery of 'misty waters, far and long,' the vast misty waters setting off the helplessness, scene and feeling fused, the aftertone lingering. The song stops short, grief deep unspoken, hate full unnamed — the qu-poet's high realm of 'reserved and unshown, the meaning reached and stopped.'

Study

Word focus

载不起 The word 'bear' makes the formless parting sorrow into a thing that can be weighed; turning Li Yi'an's line inside out, the sorrow is heavy and the boat light - full of tension. 「画船儿载不起离愁」之「载不起」，是全曲的立意所在，一个「载」字把无形的离愁具象为可以装载、可以称量的实体。愁本无质无形，看不见摸不着，此处却让它有了重量，重到连画船都承受不起——这就把离愁之深之重写得具体可感，也把「愁」与「船」这两个最平常的字眼组合出奇崛的张力。此语明显脱胎于李清照《武陵春》「载不动许多愁」，而张可久易「载不动」为「载不起」，易「蚱蜢舟」为「画船」，更以口语化的「儿」字收尾，既有承袭，更有翻新，故能青出于蓝，化用而不见借用之迹。一词之妙，在使全曲愁情有了分量，后文「恨满东州」「无计相留」皆由此一字生发，堪称全曲之眼。

忘机 From the 'Zhuangzi', it writes the sand-gulls' quenching of craft, setting off man's inability to forget feeling - plain and idle yet deeply tender. 「会忘机泛泛沙鸥」之「忘机」，语出《列子·黄帝》海上之人与鸥鸟忘机相亲的寓言：人无机心，鸥鸟便肯亲近；机心一生，鸥鸟即飞去。后世遂以「忘机」指泯灭机心、淡泊世务的超然之境，苏轼「无机鸥不惊」即用此意。此处以沙鸥之「泛泛」与「忘机」连用，写鸥鸟随潮起落、无牵无挂的自在；而深一层看，则暗以鸥鸟之忘机反衬人之不能忘情——沙鸥不知离别，故能日日自在；人深知离别，故愁恨满胸。一「忘」一「不能忘」，物我对照，闲淡语中见出深挚情，正是「以乐景写哀」的又一变体。典虽熟而用得新，用意深而措辞雅，是此词用典的过人处，亦是张可久善用熟典翻出新境的明证。

依依 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. 「管送别依依岸柳」之「依依」，直接承《诗经·采薇》「昔我往矣，杨柳依依」而来，是古典诗词中最富离情的叠词之一。「依依」本写柳丝轻柔拂动、似有依恋之态，经《采薇》一用，遂成杨柳送别的固定语码，后世「柳条折尽花飞尽，借问行人归不归」皆其流裔。此处「依依」兼有三层意味：一是状物，写岸柳在春风中袅袅摇漾的形态；二是写情，柳丝依依，似亦有情，仿佛在替人挽留；三是衬人，柳犹依依不舍，而人却不得不去，物之情深愈衬人之无奈。叠词之妙，在使音节与情味俱见缠绵。「依依」与下句「泛泛」隔句相对，叠词相映，音节摇曳生姿，使全曲于清丽中见低回，正得小山词化俗为雅、以词为曲之神。